This is a powerful performance monitoring and reporting system for servers running VMware ESX Server. Web-based dashboards show the resources in use by servers and their VMs, while the reporting module delivers printable reports of historical data.

The ftServer 6200 VMware bundle makes an excellent platform for hosting virtual machines. As VMware servers cannot be clustered, the Stratus offering is about the only option for organisations requiring extreme high availability from their ESX Server environments.

In Late February, VMWare announced the release of ESX Server 3i, the first release of their embedded hypervisor platform for OEMs. Their initial list of partners who agreed to offer 3i hypervisors embedded in their servers is impressive -- Dell, Fujitsu Siemens, HP and IBM.

One of Australia's largest adopters of VMware's ESX Server -- Australia-based international law firm Mallesons Stephen Jaques -- recovered every last dollar spent on the system three months before the rollout was even complete.

Ingram Micro, the largest distributor of computing products to retailers, computer makers and other businesses, has signed a deal to include VMware's software in its portfolio, the companies will announce Tuesday. VMware makes software that lets servers or workstations run several operating systems simultaneously, a feature useful for quickly testing software on different systems or separating one server task from another. Ingram Micro will distribute VMware's Workstation and GSX Server products, both of which run on top of a host operating system. The higher-performance and more expensive ESX server, which VMware sells directly to customers, doesn't use a host operating system. -Stephen Shankland, Special to ZDNet News